There is one passage in the chapter titled Hahakigi in The Tale of Genji which describes how a maid identifies Hikaru Genji by his scent as he tries to sneak into Utsusemi's room at night. It refers to Iko, the scent emanating from clothes smoked with burning compound incense, which was quite a common practice for Heian aristocrats. There are six types of compound incense, of which Jiju and Kayo contain a unique fragrance called juku-ukon. It is made by blending four fragrances into o-ukon, the rhizome of Curcuma aromatica called kyo-o in Chinese materia medica. Juku-ukon is essentially a compound incense based on o-ukon, and is blended into ordinary compound incense as if it were a single fragrance. Thus it becomes clear that juku-ukon is quite different from the commonly known turmeric despite the similar names. There is another confusing name called ukonko, which originated from saffron. However, the main text and annotations of ukon in the Chinese materia medica textbook were transcribed into kojisho and koyosho as is, indicating that the Japanese major textbooks on fragrance did not correctly distinguish between ukon and ukonko. Since there is no evidence that saffron was introduced into Japan during the Heian period, juku-ukon may have been a substitute for ukonko. During the investigation into the origin of ukonko, it becomes clear why Li Shi-zhen, the author of Bencao Gangmu, did not assign saffron to ukonko, through extensively exploring the literature other than materia medica. In addition, it was also clarified why the Chinese names for turmeric and saffron, the origin of which are botanically unrelated, share the common name ukon, by elucidating the etymology of the corresponding names in Arabic and Sanskrit, etc.

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Purpose: To investigate the publication style, history, and articles of Keijo Yakuho, which was published in colonial Korea. Methods: Database searches of the Japanese and Korean cross-library search systems, the Pharmaceutical University Library, and the Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science. The memoirs on pharmacies in colonial Korea and the compiled materials on pharmacies in the Meiji and Taisho periods were examined to see if Keijo Yakuho was mentioned in the published statistical report materials. Results: In the cross-search system of Japanese and Korean books it became clear that the reprint of Keijo Yakuho first published in 1908 was in fact obtained, and from the results of the research in the University Library and Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science, it was ascertained that the Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science held the Keijo Yakuho from 1937 to 1941. It was found that the publication style of Keijo Yakuho changed from monthly to twice a month, that the publisher was Kenjiro Doi, and that the articles covered a wide range of topics in administration, pharmacy, and the pharmaceutical industry.

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Introduction : The objective of the study was to examine modernization in the pharmaceutical sciences in Oita Prefecture during the Meiji Period. The author has published several articles on the pharmaceutical history of Oita Prefecture. In this report, the author researched Chiyoo Hoshida, the director of the Department of Pharmacy at Oita Prefectural Hospital from 1899 to 1911. Methods : Literature review of materials in Yakugaku Zasshi, Yakuzaishi, and others. Results and Discussion : Hoshida, a member of the samurai class (Shizoku), was born in 1786 in Aichi Prefecture and soon moved to Shizuoka Prefecture. He studied and trained at the Tokyo Yakugakko (presently, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences) and Mohan Yakkyoku (present-day Department of Pharmacy, The University of Tokyo Hospital) from 1896 to 1899. He always earned top grades in school. He was recruited as the director of the Department of Pharmacy at Oita Prefectural Hospital in 1899. His innovations in the hospital pharmacy and related actions influenced pharmacies across a wide area of Oita Prefecture. People in Oita Prefecture were able to obtain modern medicines from pharmacies. He taught science lectures in the standard prefectural school, prefectural women's school, and the hospital midwife school. Hoshida also wrote many articles related to the pharmaceutical sciences for the journal, Yakugaku Zasshi (1907, 1908). Hoshida passed away in 1911 at the age of 36; his colleagues, including pharmacists and other people in Oita Prefecture who interacted with him, mourned the loss and remembered his achievements.

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Purpose : As a series of transitions in the development of amino acid-based drugs over 50 years in Japan, the histories of collagen studies in the medical field and the development of collagen-based medical devices are investigated in this paper. Method : The authors use the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) search engine for package inserts of medical devices and literature. Results and Conclusion : The feature of collagen structure had been clarified from the 1930’s. In 1960, Japanese scientists discovered a pepsin solubilized collagen. Since then, the collagen has been used for a variety of purposes and in many forms, including more than thirty medical devices launched between the 1970’s and 2020’s in Japan. In recent years, the collagen has been used for not only cell transplantation carriers, but also the scaffold of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

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Purpose: In the Encyclopedia of Brazilian Medicinal Plants (1996) by Goro Hashimoto, Passiflora quadrangularis (hereinafter P. quadrangularis) is generally described as having a sedative effect, and quadranguloside, a cycloartane-type triterpenoid saponin, is described as a component of the leaves. The author speculates that this compound is closely related to the sedative effect of P. quadrangularis. In this study, the author collected literature on the phytochemical components and pharmacological and biological activity of P. quadrangularis. From the knowledge gained from the literature survey, the author considered the mental and neurological effects of P. quadrangularis, such as anxiolytic and sedative effects, shown in the Encyclopedia of Brazilian Medicinal Plants through phytochemical components and brain neurochemistry. The author examined whether P. quadrangularis is suitable for Passiflora preparations and their combinations in the formulation design of future psychotropic and neurological drugs. Methods: The author searched the Web for reports on P. quadrangularis. From these, the author extracted research papers on the phytochemical components and pharmacological and biological activity effects of P.quadrangularis. Results: Recent literature survey results showed that the main components isolated and identified from aqueous and aqueous alcoholic extracts of the leaves or peel of P. quadrangularis were C-glycosyl flavonoids. Among them, all reports stated that the main C-glycosyl flavonoid was vitexin-2-O-xyloside. Gazola, et al. (2018) initially considered apigenin, an aglycone of C-glycosyl flavonoid, as the causative agent of the sedative effect of aqueous extracts from the peel of P. quadrangularis. They demonstrated the potential involvement of GABAA receptors in mediating the sedative effect of apigenin. However, when the estimated amount of apigenin was administered alone, some samples did not show a sedative effect. Therefore, it was thought that other compounds may have contributed to the cause. Furthermore, the sedative effect of apigenin was observed after oral administration to mice. Therefore, it was speculated that not only apigenin but also other metabolites generated after in vivo metabolism may regulate GABAA receptors in vivo. Recently, Gopika, et al. (2024) confirmed the presence of quercetin 3,7-O-dirhamnoside and kaempferol 3-O-rhamnoside 7-O-xyloside in the hydroalcoholic extract of P. quadrangularis using LCMS analysis. On the other hand, from this literature survey, the author could not find any research papers that demonstrated the psychopharmacological effects of quadranguloside, a cycloartane-type triterpenoid saponin, such as anxiolytic, sedative, or antidepressant effects. Conclusion: It is thought that the aglycones of C-glycosyl flavonoids (apigenin, ruteorin, etc.) contained in P.quadrangularis and their metabolites act as a community dividing them into their respective GABAA receptor binding sites. Based on these comprehensive results, it is believed that P. quadrangularis exerts anxiolytic, sedative and mild tranquilizing effects. Through this literature survey, it is believed that with regard to Nerbenl-Forte, a botanical sedative containing valerian, passiflora, hops and potentilla, the ingredients contained in the herbal medicines of valerian, passiflora and hops act as GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulators and exert their anxiolytic, sedative and mild tranquilizing effects through a synergistic.

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